Portfolio Design Labs LLC Purchases New Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,117 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,991,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in NetApp by 38.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $152,270,000 after purchasing an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a "market perform" rating on the stock. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $1.25 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $123.45. 2,351,460 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,812,518. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.30 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $121.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $25.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.87, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. NetApp's revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.63%.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.